The Daily Sport-February 20th

Tonight’s edition will be shorter than the usual posts. For starters, I have to finish this and get off the computer so I can go watch the very subject I’ll be discussing tonight. Also, it’s because I’ve been working on a different longer post that should go up sometime later this weekend which is my first version of an NFL Mock Draft. 

But that’s just excuses which I’m sure none of you want to hear so I’ll get back on topic (and at least remotely try to stay there). And that topic is: rivalries; specifically, the rivalry I’m looking most forward to tonight, Duke vs North Carolina in Men’s basketball.

Rivalries in professional sports can be great; Yankees-Red Sox, Cowboys-[insert every NFC East team here] and Bruins-Canadiens all offer exciting, intense moments but I firmly believe nothing beats college rivalries. The first thoughts of college rivalries often lead directly to those centered in the college football landscape. Florida-Florida State, Alabama-Auburn, Michigan-Ohio State are just a few of the many great college football rivalries as heated as ever in the sport.

But with March Madness right around the corner and college football players running rampant around their various college towns causing God-knows what kind of trouble and havoc on campuses these days, I figured we would focus on the hardwood. Now, don’t get me wrong, college basketball offers just as many, if not more, intense rivalry match-ups as football, but none can compare to the almighty: Duke vs North Carolina.

No one can truly say what makes this rivalry great by summing it up into one characteristic. Whether you cite the list of immensely-talented players to come through the programs, the seemingly endless list of historic, close games, or the sustained level of dominance each has maintained, this rivalry embodies what makes college basketball great.

I did say I would keep it short so I’ll leave you with a few parting thoughts and stats to wrap up this post.

Just a list of some of the players to play for the two programs:

Duke	UNC
Grant Hill Christian Laettner Kyrie Irving Luol Deng JJ Redick Corey Maggette Elton Brand Carlos Boozer Danny Ferry Shane Battier Bobby Hurley	Sam Perkins Larry Brown Vince Carter Tyler Hansborough Hubert Davis Raymond Felton Ty Lawson Rasheed Wallace Antawn Jamison And of course… Michael Jordan

   

And a few quick stats courtesy of SportsNation:

In the past 85 meetings the two teams have played coming into tonight’s game:

UNC leads the series winning 43 to Duke’s 42

However…Duke leads in total points 6,566 to UNC’s 6,564 (Yes that’s 2 total points separating the teams combined totals over the past eighty-five games)

Today will be better than yesterday.